2023-06-08 11:35:55
At the meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg early this followingnoon, there are no signs of a speedy conclusion to the negotiations on a reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The positions on the two central questions – i.e. the distribution of asylum seekers and the preliminary examination of asylum applications from people with little chance of being admitted to the EU’s external borders – are sometimes still far apart.
For example, Germany wants to prevent families with children from being subjected to summary proceedings following illegally crossing the border under conditions similar to detention. Italy, where a particularly large number of migrants arrive, considers the planned regulations for more solidarity to be insufficient and would like more flexibility.
According to the dpa, countries such as Austria and the Netherlands emphasized that some of the planned rules for a more efficient fight once morest illegal migration do not go far enough for them. It is still unclear whether Austria will agree to the proposal on the table for mandatory solidarity with member states that are heavily burdened. That proposal envisages states being able to “buy themselves free” from accepting asylum seekers. Compensation payments of around 20,000 euros per asylum seeker were recently discussed.
Agreement “not at any price”
The Swedish EU Council Presidency will decide later today whether to hold a vote. A prerequisite for a decision on the plans is that 15 out of 27 member states vote yes, whereby these must together make up at least 65 percent of the total population of the EU. Then there would have to be negotiations with the EU Parliament.
Before the meeting, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) saw a “chance” for an agreement, but not at “any price”. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) called for “faster, stricter and therefore fairer procedures at the EU’s external borders” before the meeting.
External border procedures should initially apply to migrants from countries that have an EU average recognition rate of less than 20 percent, such as countries like Turkey and India. The majority of refugees – from Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan, for example – should continue to have the right to normal procedures.
Karner once more calls for asylum procedures in third countries
Once once more, Karner spoke out in favor of asylum procedures in safe third countries – a demand that UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk had recently warned once morest. Karner also emphasized that Austria had shown solidarity in the past and had been “excessively burdened”.
Confidence prevailed before the meeting in Spain, for example: The Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that today was the moment for a breakthrough. EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson compared the negotiations to a marathon where we still have “maybe a hundred meters to go”. “We’re so close,” Johansson said.
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